President Estrada simply laughed off yesterday reports that he bought a string of choice properties in Metro Manila over the last three years, using funds that may have been illegally acquired.
He appeared to be not a bit troubled about the report as he said that "there’s no problem and there’s nothing to worry about" the exposé by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ).
"What else is new?" Mr. Estrada asked when interviewed by reporters at the Philippine International Convention Center where he delivered a speech before a conference of electric power suppliers.
"Anyway, I will face these charges. I think it’s included in the impeachment (complaint). There’s no problem and there’s nothing to worry about," the President said.
The Senate is reportedly set to investigate the latest PCIJ exposé.
The report by the PCIJ was released as Mr. Estrada fought back allegations that he received hundreds of millions of pesos in bribes from illegal gambling syndicates.
The PCIJ, an independent, non-profit media agency that specializes in investigative reporting, said Mr. Estrada had used shell companies with his business friends and lawyers as fronts to acquire the properties in some of Metro Manila’s most exclusive districts over the last three years.
The purchases, it noted, raised questions about the sources of Mr. Estrada’s wealth.
There was also the possibility that the money used to buy the properties was illegally obtained, the PCIJ said, without elaborating.
Mr. Estrada’s declared net income in 1999 was P2.3 million and his net worth was at P35.8 million, and would not have been enough to pay for the acquisitions, the report noted.
Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora declined to comment on the report, saying he did not have "personal knowledge" of the alleged purchases.
"It is difficult to comment on things you don’t know about," he said.
Zamora said that it would be best if the media get the comments of the officers of the companies who were named owners of these choice properties.
The PCIJ said that among the properties allegedly bought for Mr. Estrada by firms controlled by his associates was a huge P150-million mansion in the posh New Manila district in Quezon City.
The mansion has been renovated and filled with temperature-controlled rooms, a smoke machine, a giant gazebo and a swimming pool with real sand and a wave gadget.
Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson described this place as "Boracay," where Mr. Estrada met earlier this year with Singson, jueteng lord Bong Pineda, and BW Resources head Dante Tan to discuss the future of jueteng in the country.
The house was reportedly the temporary residence of Laarni Enriquez, a former movie starlet said to be a favorite mistress of Mr. Estrada.
Mansions were also bought in the exclusive Wack Wack village through shell companies allegedly set up by Mr. Estrada’s friends, with a total estimated fair market value of P455.4 million, the PCIJ said.
Vacation houses were also believed bought for various mistresses of Mr. Estrada in the resort cities of Baguio and Tagaytay over the past year, the report said.
Meanwhile, presidential son and San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada said that the opposition is on a path to destroy the President’s moral credibility.
Speaking before an assembly of public treasurers and assessors, he said that his father is ready to face the impeachment proceedings, knowing that the jueteng accusations are politically motivated.
"The opposition is creating trouble in preparation for next year’s election," he said. "They are out to destroy my father’s moral credibility."
Jinggoy added that there is no truth to reports that his father had built several mansions using funds from illegal sources.
He also said that moves to hold a snap election will not prosper, considering that the six-year term of the President is guaranteed by the Constitution.
This is what House Assistant Minority Leader Michael Defensor (LP, Quezon City) wants Mr. Estrada to do to his friends who have reportedly acquired P1 billion-worth of mansions in behalf of the President.
Defensor said Mr. Estrada, who is facing an impeachment complaint in the House of Representatives, should give these palatial residences to the poor, whose case the President has always professed to champion.
He said the Chief Executive can ask his friends holding the titles to these properties to sell them and use the proceeds to build houses for the masa.
"At P100,00 per unit, Erap can shelter 10,000 families," he said.
He said if his friends refuse to give up the mansions they have bought in his behalf, he can use the awesome powers of the presidency to convince them.
"He can order the Bureau of Internal Revenue to find out if they have the capacity to finance the acquisitions based on their income tax declarations," he added.
Defensor told the President that unless he gives to the poor those mansions, "his efforts to agitate the masa to support him during his daytime sorties to slum areas will have no real effect if he is seen to retire to palatial homes at night."
"For how can the poor who have to walk for miles for a glass of clean water sympathize with a man who has built a mansion that has a swimming pool with a wave-making machine?" he said.
The congressman said presidential friends should give up these large and sprawling residences while they will have time "to record such a gesture as a donation by the friends of Erap."
"Tomorrow, these properties could be sequestered from them," he warned them.
In a related development, Mr. Estrada’s political enemies launched yesterday a movement that would call on the Chief Executive to resign.
Dubbed as RESIGN!, the group’s convenors include former Economic Adviser Solita Monsod, former Telecommunications chief Josefina Lichauco, former National Democratic Front spokesman Satur Ocampo, and Cecille Yasay, the wife of former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr.
The group urged the people to launch various forms of protests against Mr. Estrada.
"Erap is unfit for the government in every sense of the word," said Nini Quezon-Avanceña, the daughter of the late Manuel L. Quezon and also a convenor of the resign movement. – Marichu Villanueva, Jess Diaz, Pia Lee-Brago, Freeman News Service, AFP